Week 2 Cognitive Development in Infancy

Question 1

Three key concepts involved in infant cognitive development:

Answer 1

Mental schemas

Object permanence

Causality

Question 2

How do genes, DNA and chromosomes interact

Answer 2

DNA are the building blocks that make up our genes and our genes are what form our chromosomes

• Genes = Instruments
• Epigenetics = Orchestra

Question 3

What are the common research areas in developmental psychology that study genes and the environment

Answer 3

Common research areas in developmental psychology that study genes and the environment include:

• Twin studies (e.g., looking at how siblings with the same genes develop growing up in a family together).
• Adoption studies (e.g., looking at how siblings with different genes develop growing up in a family together).
• Genetic research (e.g., are specific genes associated with developmental outcomes).
• Epigenetics research (e.g., how environments influence how genes are expressed and then drive development).

Question 4

What is Proliferation and Pruning?

Answer 4

Proliferation:
Connects the circuits and creates more

Pruning:
Breaks off the circuits if they are not being used

Question 5

What is a schema?

Answer 5

In psychology and cognitive science, a schema describes a pattern of thought or behavior that organizes categories of information and the relationships among them

Question 6

Optimal schema Discrepancy

Answer 6

Optimal schema Discrepancy

1. Novelty
2. Attention
3. Schema formed
4. No Novelty
5. No Attention
6. No Schema formed

Minor Change: Good

Major change: May lose attention

• If there is a major change to an infant’s environment and there is too much novelty, they may lose attention entirely, or not link the object to an existing schema.
• Kagan suggested that infants use minor, novel changes in elements of the environment to make new discoveries. Optimal discrepancy is ‘just enough difference’ between what is old and what is new for an infant to learn.

Question 7

There are two important processes Piaget suggested help infants form schemas. What are they?

Answer 7

There are two important processes Piaget suggested help infants form schemas:

Assimilation:
Assimilation is where we incorporate aspects of the environment into our schemas and accommodation is when we change our schemas or expand them when new information cannot be assimilated, or it is too different to assimilate.

How a dog is a dog

Accommodation
Changing one’s schema/ideas when the new information cannot be assimilated (i.e. is different)

How a cat is different to a dog but there is something similar (They are animals, 4 legs, tail etc.)

Question 8

What is Object permanence and Causality

Answer 8

Object permanence
Object permanence is the understanding that objects don’t cease to exist if they can’t be seen. Piaget theorised that if you showed an infant a ball and then hid it quickly under a blanket, the infant will only look for the ball if they have a mental representation of the ball they can hold in their mind. This was based on his observations that very young infants did not tend to search for the ball, which he interpreted as them not having object permanence. In other words, if something disappeared, it could be gone forever.

Causality
Causality is the relation between two events, one of which is the consequence (or effect) of the other (cause)
- Piaget theorised that very young infants have little to no understanding of causality, or cause and effect. Meaning that infants don’t necessarily understand that their behaviour can cause something to occur. At around three to four months, Piaget suggested that infants start to repeat the same sort of actions because they see that these actions seem to be associated with a particular result. However, this reasoning is limited in its sophistication because infants didn’t seem to understand the need for spatial or physical connection with an object for cause and effect to work.

Question 9

What experimental designs can be used for abilities in a
pre-verbal child with emerging motor skills?

Answer 9

Needed to develop experimental designs to assess abilities in a
pre-verbal child with emerging motor skills

̶ e.g. visual tracking, heart rate variability, reaching

Question 10

Cognitive processes behind attachment: Schemas

Answer 10

Cognitive processes behind attachment: Schemas

• if an infant is securely attached, they are likely to have a model of their caregiver as reliable, trustworthy and capable. The infant believes that this caregiver will provide comfort when they need it, and this is the schema or lens through which they may view the relationship (and sometimes even other relationships).
• In contrast, if an infant is insecurely attached, they likely experience their caregiver as unreliable and or inconsistent. These experiences and expectations influence the formation of their attachment schema, which again is the lens through which they view their relationship.
• Often our attachment schemas are very simple. They’re based on experience, prior to the development of language and understanding of symbols. These internal working models of our caregivers formed in infancy can have a lifelong influence on our later social relationships and our later attachments to other individuals.

Question 11

The 3 aspects of the circle of security:

Answer 11

The 3 aspects of the circle of security:

1: Freedom and confidence to explore
- Support them
2: Insure they can come back home
- Organising emotion
- Protect, comfort, and understand
3: Ensure home is good
- Be wise and kind
Miss reading can cause pain and frustration
- Learn to read cues
- At any give moment our child is somewhere on this circle, so play your part
- No such thing as perfect parenting
- You may miss reads at times but as long as you are trying you are most likely doing good enough

Question 12

SEPARATION

Answer 12

Infants can manage small chunks of time away from
their primary caregiver provided they know the adult
and sense them to be a source of safety and security.
Infants react to prolonged separation initially with
protest – clinging, crying, screaming and anxious
searching behaviors. If the separation lasts too long,
they move into despair becoming listless, showing
no interest in surroundings, often refusing food, and
shedding occasional tears. At this stage the infant is
preoccupied with their mother but has lost hope of
recovering her. The next stage of coping with prolonged
separation is detachment, where the infant only
interacts superficially with other people and becomes
more invested in objects than relationships

Question 13

INFANT-PARENT ATTACHMENT
RELATIONSHIP STYLES

Answer 13

• Secure

About 60% of infants have a secure attachment
relationship with their mother. These infants are
accustomed to sensitive caregiving and anticipate that
their caregiver will be readily available to comfort and
support them when they need it. They are able to
freely go to their attachment figure or to explore the
environment depending on their wishes and prevailing
circumstances.

• Insecure avoidant

Infants with an avoidant attachment relationship with
their mother – about 20% of infants – tend to be
overly oriented to the environment and not confident
that their mothers will positively respond to their
attachment behaviours. Over time they learn to be
dismissive of attachment issues, and do not show
distress when separated.

• Insecure ambivalent

Infants with an ambivalent (sometimes called resistant)
attachment relationship with their mother tend to cry on separation and approach their mother on reunion.
However they resist comfort, are not easily soothed,
and, unlike a child with a secure attachment, take a
long time to settle and resume playing. About 10%
of infants demonstrate an ambivalent attachment
relationship

• Disorganised attachment relationship

Infants with a disorganised relationship style show
behaviour typical of both avoidant and ambivalent
attachment relationships. A disorganised attachment
relationship style is usually evident in children who
have suffered major trauma, including severe neglect
or abuse. In fact it has been argued that the name
‘disorganised attachment’ is a misnomer. The name
arose out of the observation that these infants
showed a combination of avoidance and ambivalent
responses to their primary caregivers and seek proximity
to mothers in strange and disoriented ways. Their
attachment behaviours are contradictory, for example
they may express distress on separation and no distress
on reunion, they may seek proximity with strangers,
demonstrate stereotypical behaviour (dazed expression,
sit and stare into space) and they show apprehension
or direct fear of their parent or may freeze (no activity
for 20-25 seconds).